OSS 117 -- James Bond style, sans conneries!

[RJman]

This may only be applicable to our members in Freedom, let alone those who are Freedomphone, but I recommend anyone able to to see OSS 117 -- Le Caire, Nid d'Espions, which is a French Naked Gun-style parody of the Bond films starring Jean Dujardin, who looks exactly like a Gallic Sean Connery. The humor is a bit heavy-handed ("Comment est votre blanquette?") but the clothing style is nailed -- right down to the Conduit-style suits with TV-fold pocket square, the classic 1960s-style long-sleeve polos, and everything else that was good about the wardrobe in early Bond films. Including the memorable line, when the hero is invited to an embassy reception, "Oh boy! I can wear my new alpaca tuxedo!"

Hot French women, too, but that goes without saying.

 

[Soph]

And with no subtitles

The Raven haired girl is superb in green.
"Going to war without France is like going duck hunting without your accordion." ---Donald Rumsfeld/Letterman

 

[whnay.]

looks hilarious...

 

[RJman]

A fun part of it is that the film satirizes certain French attitudes with savagery, including a scene where after the hero makes a long tirade dismissing all other nations and proclaiming the superiority of Western thought and the necessity of colonial powers, the heroine tells him, "In many ways, you are the most French person I have ever met." He stammers and blushes, obviously flattered, and then mutters, "Thank you." His next mission [spoiler?] (this is set in 1955, mind you) is to keep Iran as calm and Western-friendly as it's been...

I discovered on IMDB that there had been a series of OSS films made through the 1960s, with a different actor playing the secret agent in each one. These appeared to be a French Bond pastiche rather than a parody; this current revisionist take a la Starsky & Hutch is a good idea.

The film even has a Peter Lorre-a-like and a slobby fellow who resembles Sydney Greenstreet -- wonderful fun for any aficionados of film noir

out there.

PS: Soph, you might have to agree now that going to war with Rumsfeld is like going duck hunting with Dick Cheney.

 

[Soph]

Originally Posted by RJman

A fun part of it is that the film satirizes certain French attitudes with savagery, including a scene where after the hero makes a long tirade dismissing all other nations and proclaiming the superiority of Western thought and the necessity of colonial powers, the heroine tells him, "In many ways, you are the most French person I have ever met." He stammers and blushes, obviously flattered, and then mutters, "Thank you." His next mission [spoiler?] (this is set in 1955, mind you) is to keep Iran as calm and Western-friendly as it's been...

I discovered on IMDB that there had been a series of OSS films made through the 1960s, with a different actor playing the secret agent in each one. These appeared to be a French Bond pastiche rather than a parody; this current revisionist take a la Starsky & Hutch is a good idea.

The film even has a Peter Lorre-a-like and a slobby fellow who resembles Sydney Greenstreet -- wonderful fun for any aficionados of film noir

out there.

PS: Soph, you might have to agree now that going to war with Rumsfeld is like going duck hunting with Dick Cheney.

I don't discriminate in finding sardonic wit on both sides of the war. It's not the size of your gun that matters anyway, right?

"Bush admitted that his pre-war intelligence wasn't what it should have been. We knew that when we elected him!" —Jay Leno

We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it."
---- Marge Simpson

"The last time the French asked for 'more proof' it came marching into Paris under a German flag."
--David Letterman

"I think we should take Iraq and Iran and combine them into one country and call it Irate. All the pissed off people live in one place and get it over with."
---Denis Leary

Goofy fun though especially getting drunk on stirred Martinis.

 

[Etienne]

Originally Posted by RJman

I discovered on IMDB that there had been a series of OSS films made through the 1960s, with a different actor playing the secret agent in each one.
Yup. The OSS novels were also hugely succesful back then and sold millions. The first one (1949) was published a few years before Fleming's Bond series started and the last one was written in... 1992! (original author 1949-1963, his wife writing 1963-1985, his kids writing 1985-1992) I think there are something like 254 novels in total, if they want to keep shooting, they have plenty of stories for their future films.

 

[RJman]

Etienne -- did you see the film? What did you think? What exactly is the double entendre with "blanquette"?

"The name is Dujardin..."

Strangely enough, the Bresch is indulging his Bond fantasies over on LL.

 

[Etienne]

Originally Posted by RJman

Etienne -- did you see the film? What did you think?
Not yet, but I plan to.

What exactly is the double entendre with "blanquette"?

I'll tell you what I think as soon as I have seen it...

 

[Keith T]

Fascinating...as a huge Bond fan, I'd love to see it. So this flick is still in (French) theaters? Would it be available on DVD in the US at some point in the future?

 

[LabelKing]

With those expressions, it looks like Fernandel would have been perfect.

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/exce...show/1/141.htm

 

[saint]

A blanquette is a white stew, if a chick is asking some guy, it should be very obvious.

RJMan: the cat is brindled not brinded (too much time in the East?).

 

[RJman]

No, sorry dude, it's brinded. Check your Shakespeare.

The film is still out in the theaters. I doubt it will make it to American DVD. Perhaps when it comes out on Freedom DVD I can have a little showing of it at le repaire RJ (le RJ bolthole).

 

[Etienne]

Originally Posted by RJman

Etienne -- did you see the film? What did you think? What exactly is the double entendre with "blanquette"?
I just saw the film tonight and liked it a lot. I don't think there is a general double entendre on "blanquette". But if you noticed, he answers "la blanquette est bonne" in general, but when the girl says it he says "elle est bonne". There is your double-entendre...

Jean Dujardin is always impeccably put in the film. Have you ever heard of the tailor who made the suits, a "Joseph Kergoat"?

 

[RJman]

Kergoat? Sounds like his suits are for [chicken] farmer!